This KS Myeloid Cell meeting aims to bring together key leaders in academia and industry to discuss recent insights regarding myeloid cell functional heterogeneity and how to target these cells for therapeutic interventions. It is clear that myeloid cells hold significant therapeutic promise, but this potential is yet to be realized. While previous meetings have typically focused on academic advances, this meeting will also cover the latest industry approaches and novel therapeutic applications. By bringing together all actors we will stimulate discussions and collaboration that will drive translational advances and more rapidly realize transformative applications in the field.

One of the main themes of the meeting will be how to translate recent seminal studies of myeloid cells into meaningful biological insights and therapeutic approaches. For example, we will explore how recent identification both unique and conserved myeloid cell populations across tissues and diseases, discovered via single cell RNA-seq studies, might be leveraged therapeutically. Moreover, we aim to provide insight into key future questions for the field. What remaining questions need to be answered to enable us to harness the power of myeloid cells for treatments? What technologies are currently available, or on the horizon, to answer these questions? Finally, we hope to convey to junior scientists how science is conducted in both industrial and academic settings, as well as shed light on the process of therapy discovery and development, to inform their career trajectories.